Louisville's jail seeing improvement in recruitment, retention but remains short 85 officers, director says

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Louisville Metro Department of Corrections said it's making improvements in retention and recruitment, but remains short 85 sworn officers.

Wednesday, jail Director Jerry Collins spoke in front of the Metro Government Oversight and Audit Committee about recruitment and retention.

LMDC's Human Resources officer said there are 593 budgeted positions, including sworn and non-sworn positions. About 440 of those positions are sworn law officer jobs.

Collins said the jail has expanded its recruiting efforts, including traveling to Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, advertising positions on the radio, utilizing billboards in multiple zip codes and hosting job fairs.

"We try to be very innovative and we're doing that with our social media, radio, and just word of mouth re-branding. You know, re-branding, and part of that is coming in front of council, being accountable and talking about the challenges, I'm not afraid to do that," Collins said.

In terms of retention, Collins said part of that comes with new culture at the jail, including improving equipment and technology, as well as encouraging officers to apply for promotions.

However, the changes do not bring back life-altering changes for loved ones who were once incarcerated at Metro Corrections.

A string of deaths inside the jail led to multiple investigations being launched last year. Metro Council hired David Beyer, a retired FBI agent, to conduct a report of his own as some councilmembers were skeptical of the consultant hired by former Mayor Greg Fischer's administration to investigate issues at the jail.

From safety concerns and staffing shortages, to rundown facilities and sexual harassment, the results of the investigation revealed several ongoing problems at Louisville's jail.

A woman named Winona, who asked not to be identified due to pending lawsuits involving LMDC, lost her son while he was incarcerated at Metro Corrections. She was told he died by suicide.

"He should have never died in there," she said. "Somebody was assigned to watch him every 15 minutes, check on him every 15 minutes and nobody checked on him for 41 (minutes)," Winona said.

Patricia Adams' son was incarcerated at LMDC for four years. She said her son took a guilty plea so he could be moved from Metro Corrections, even though he took fault for a crime he was ready to fight in trial.

"Might have to wait in Metro Corrections a month or more, my son said 'forget it, forget it all,' and plead guilty just to get the hell out of there," Adams said.

Adams said her son is now in state custody and doing better.

While lives have been lost and Adams' son took a guilty plea, Collins' hope is that changes to recruitment and retention have already brought significant change to the city's jail.

"One day last month we had 19 applicants in a day, which is like a record for us, we've been going to academies back-to-back," Collins said.

Winona said she hopes the improvements will prevent more lives from being lost at LMDC.

"I just hope that things are getting better there," she said. "I heard they are, and so that, that's kind of comforting."

Collins also mentioned the jail is negotiating a new contract with the corrections officers' union. He hopes a new contract, with a potential pay raise, could bring more interest.

Louisville's jail seeing improvement in recruitment, retention but remains short 85 officers, director says